As of Saturday noon, 60,057 people were confirmed dead in the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province alone, with another 340,875 injured, a provincial official said.

So far, 83,988 have been rescued from debris and about 5.4 million have been given temporary shelter, said Hou Xiongfei, director of the information office of the Sichuan provincial government.

Hou said hospitals in the province admitted 260,000 injured people and nearly 3,500 were transferred out of Sichuan for treatment.

Nearly 10,000 medical workers have been mobilized to join the epidemic prevention efforts in the quake-hit area in Sichuan, Hou said.

There has been no outbreak of serious infectious diseases nor occurrence of emergency public health incidents in the quake zone, Hou added.

As of Saturday noon, some 7,904 aftershocks have happened in the zone, with the largest measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale.

The province had received disaster relief funds totaling 5.4 billion yuan (US$771 million), according to the official.

The 8.0 magnitude quake, which was centered in Wenchuan County, had left 60,560 dead nationwide as of Saturday noon, according to the Information Office of the State Council.

(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2008)